Not for the first time over recent months, the red mist had fallen and Bob MacIntyre had blown a gasket out on the golf course.
Having likened his own temperament to a ‘kettle’ only last week at the Genesis Scottish Open, the rage that so often consumes him had boiled over once again.
It happened back at the Sony Open in January when he snapped his putter and paid a heavy price after blowing a chance to win the tournament.
‘My attitude cost me this golf tournament,’ he reflected at the time. ‘I can’t be allowing that. My attitude has got to be spot-on for 72 holes.’
It happened again at The Masters in April, when a spectacular on-course meltdown led to him being reprimanded by the Green Jackets at Augusta National.
And it happened once again here at Royal Birkdale in the final round of this year’s Open Championship.
Bob MacIntyre was given a warning for serious misconduct during his final round at The Open
MacIntyre posted a 71 while playing partner Cam Young surged up the leaderboard with a 64
MacIntyre’s temperamental issues were apparent when he was reprimanded at The Masters
A week which had started so positively for MacIntyre, who was only four shots back at the halfway point, would finish in the most undignified fashion.
As per the R&A’s new code of conduct, he was given an official warning for serious misconduct in his final round today after angrily slamming his driver into the ground on the 16th tee.
Unrepentant, unapologetic, and apparently unwilling to change.
‘I expect to get a few of them [warnings] in my career,’ said MacIntyre after signing off with a final round of 71 and a two-under par total for the week. ‘Yeah, I run hot, so be it.
‘I’m going to do it for the rest of my career. I try and toe the line, but when you feel like you’re playing a golf course that you can hit it pretty much anywhere and there’s no real punishment…
‘Then you do hit one slightly off line and you get the biggest punishment you can possibly get, it’s just a sore one. Again, I’m going to react aggressively at times. It’s part of my DNA.’
Asked whether there are any grey areas over what constitutes an offence under the new policy, he replied: ‘To be honest, I couldn’t care less.
‘If I got a two-shot penalty, it’s my fault. A warning, it’s my fault. I don’t really worry about it.’
Insisting he has no intention of changing his approach, he continued: ‘It’s just a warning. I’ve had plenty of warnings in school. I won’t change.
‘I get a step over the line sometimes with my frustration, but it’s part of me.
‘If we take that out of every player in the game of golf, you’ve got guys that don’t budge when they do something, who are very disciplined.
‘Then there’s other people, probably mainly Europeans, who wear their heart on their sleeve and are a bit volatile.
‘We’re going to cross the line every now and again and get told off or get a two-shot penalty every now and again.
‘But it’s just the way we are. If we didn’t have that, people wouldn’t stick in and watch golf.’
Perhaps the most concerning aspect of MacIntyre’s latest blow-up is the fact that he doesn’t seem to see any problem with it.
This is now threatening to become a problem which plagues his career, and yet there seems to be no willingness on his part to learn from past mistakes.
He was never in contention to win the tournament today, so it’s not like MacIntyre’s meltdown scuppered his chances. His final-round 71 meant that he finished the week on two under, eight shots behind the winner.
But the man he was playing alongside – Cam Young – very much was in contention to win it. Young caught fire in a final round of 64 to go surging up the leaderboard.
He was trying to maintain his focus and win the championship – meanwhile MacIntyre is slamming clubs and behaving like a petulant child. Again.
There is a way to handle yourself on a golf course, a way to show respect to your playing partner, and this was most certainly not it.
To lash out and damage a golf course like that is the height of ignorance and disrespect. All the more so when there is no apology or self-reflection afterwards.
It feels like MacIntyre is going round in circles, unable to conquer his inner demons and seemingly unwilling to even recognise it as an issue.
And that’s the point. Things don’t appear to be getting any better. If anything, his temper is getting worse, to the point that it is consuming him out on the golf course.
He will now take a break over the next three weeks before he returns to action in August in the FedExCup play-offs in August.
‘Yeah, three weeks off now, I need it,’ he said. ‘Yeah, I don’t know if I’ll touch a golf club in three weeks. I’ll go and enjoy my time off. Yeah, see where we come back in Memphis and hopefully we’re in good form.’
Asked to reflect on his performances in the majors this year, MacIntyre continued: ‘Coming in this week, I thought I had a real good chance.
‘Even going out today, I thought I had a good chance. But the more I play that golf course, the more I realise that it doesn’t set up that well for me.
‘There are certain holes that the longer hitters, the guys are probably cruising it at 184 ball speed, are taking drivers on and there’s no punishment.
‘I feel like that’s the way professional golf is going. I get we’re trying to get crowds in, but we’ve still got to have… links golf needs gorse bushes.
‘I’m watching everyone now, the longer hitters, bomb driver down the 9th. There’s one gorse bush down the left-hand side.
‘That hole reminds me of I think it’s 12 or something at Portrush, the dogleg left to right before the long par-5.
‘I mean, it needs gorse bushes. Cam has hit a slightly wider one, but he knows it’s fine and then he’s pitched up to six feet and holed it.
‘I feel like links golf courses are designed to be – it’s like you go and take the gorse bushes out at Troon on that one right by the railway – that’s what I feel is going to happen.
‘That’s the way I feel the new designers are going. So yeah, it wasn’t to be my week. But always next year.’
